I’ve just returned from the Problogger Training Conference in Surfers Paradise, Queensland and I have to say that it was like no other conference that I’ve ever attended. As my hubby, Dave said to me: “You’re incredibly lucky that you are so passionate about blogging and that all the speakers have something to say that you want to hear.”
Not just “Hear”, I replied, but “Lap up”!
Problogger Event Speakers
Just look at some of the speakers below: Darren Rowse, Tsh Oxenreider, Lady Melbourne, Trey Ratcliff, Amy Porterfield, Caz Makepeace, Christina from Hair Romance, Andrea from Fox in Flats, Nicole Avery, Lorraine Murphy, Bec Derrington, Catriona Pollard, and Shane Tilley.
Oh, and in the top middle picture there’s a bunch of us at the Friday night cocktail party on the pool deck of the Hilton Hotel having Waaaay too much fun!
Then there’s the fun and community of the event; meeting up with virtual friends in real life, and catching up on conversations that were left hanging at last year’s event in Melbourne.
Sugar Overload and Fancy Cocktails
I won’t mention sugar overload … oh alright then I will! The food was amazing and this year at the QT in Surfers we were treated to eats and treats throughout the two day conference that made many of us go weak at the knees. No 3 o’clock slump for us bloggers – no way! Talk about sugar rush. Who needs cocktails? And before any of you make rude comments about those little green thingies in the picture below, they were filled with lime juice!
Did I mention cocktails? Oh yes, well naturally we did need them, most of us, and by 5.30pm we were well ready for a nice Margarita or Passion Pop at the Stingray Bar served in Jars, of course, because that’s hip it seems. Note to self, start saving all my old jars for dinner party drinks.
You get to meet A Grade bloggers like Nikki Parkinson from Styling You and D from Woogs World too. They have so much wisdom to offer and are seriously nice peeps too.
Creative, Inspiring, Entertaining
The thing with blogging is that it’s creative, it’s inspiring and it gives you a sense of purpose. Alongside that and most of all, you can help people, in however small a way, by offering useful advice in one way or another as well as being a source of entertainment.
So today I thought I’d bring you some of the quotes from speakers at this year’s event – because many of these quotes are as pertinent to real life as they are to blogging.
Surfers Paradise and Problogger Event Virtual Ticket
Oh, and if you’d like to see what I thought of Surfer’s Paradise, why not pop over to my post at ZigaZag: Things to do in Surfers Paradise without going to a Gold Coast Theme Park.
On the other hand, if you’d like to get hold of all the sessions, panels and speeches on podcast you can grab the Problogger Virtual Ticket here (I’m an affiliate so I do stand to make a little commission to help buy my next bottle of wine. Thank you and Cheers!)
Quotes from ProBlogger Event 2013 Queensland
Organised Housewife
“‘I’m just a normal person, a mum, like ‘my readers’. I’m not a superwoman, and I come across like that, I think.” Katrina Springer, when asked why she thought her blog’s community had grown so well.
YTravel Blog
“Travel tips and destination type posts, bring lots of search traffic, but personal posts that include feelings and emotions about how you interpret a destination – these resonate with readers the most.” Craig Makepeace from YTravel Blog
“As bloggers we are storytellers, but keeping the reader in mind has been key to our success.” Craig Makepeace from YTravel Blog
“Try out new things and keep pushing forward, Caz Makepeace from Mojito Mother
“Anyone who has had success has been standing on the shoulders of giants. Reach out to people and treat them as another human being. Build relationships. We had a list of companies we’d like to work with and people wed like to get to know. Don’t reach out with what you can get, but what you can give. Don’t be afraid to ask … Ask people for a favour. If you don’t ask the answer is always no. But be ok with getting a lot of no’s,” Caz Makepeace.
Planning Queen
“Readers enjoy honesty and vulnerability, ” Nicole Avery, Planning Queen.
Do it Yourself PR
“Your challenge is to leverage the traditional forms of media to position yourself as a thought leader in your market.” Taken from the session “DIY PR” with
Lorraine Murphy, Bec Derrington and Catriona Pollard.
Stuck in Customs
“A blog is the greatest self discovery tool of our age. You either uncover parts of yourself that need a little more thinking, or find new rivers of truth in yourself. We are all in this big world together and sharing ourselves,” Trey Ratcliff
“It’s the times when you are living in the now when you are really in the flow of your life. And the more you live in the now the more your universe will turn out as its supposed to.” Trey Ratcliff
“Do what you love, it doesn’t matter who shows up just do what drives you, get tight into your core, then ancillary things will happen around that.” Trey Ratcliff
Inspiring Clare Bowditch
“Sensitivity not toughness is the new power tool in the world today,” Clare Bowditch
“We are entering the conceptual age, in which we can talk about what we want to do,” Clare Bowditch
“The basis of all good businesses is to solve a problem in the world,” Clare Bowditch
Hair Romance
“If there’s someone you want to work with pitch them the idea .. pick up the phone rather than email,” Christina from Hair Romance.
Amy Porterfield on Facebook
“Facebook is the best way to market yourself.” Amy Porterfield
“Model what’s working for other people (on Facebook), don’t try and reinvent the wheel. 80 characters or less, gets 27% more engagement,” Amy Porterfield.
Darren Rowse
“There will always be more you can do … Make peace with this.” Darren Rowse“Fear is a signal that something important is about to happen. Pay attention to it.” Darren Rowse.
Tsh Oxenreider
“You can’t Finish Twitter!” Tsh Oxenreider in response to Darren’s comment above!
Reader Make Over and a Funky New Look for Spring.
Thank you for this wonderful recap! How gorgeous did all of the food look? And I too am loving the idea of cocktails in jars! Too cute. I would love to go to the ProBlogger event next year and reading this has just made me want to go even more!!
Thanks Lucy, and let’s hope we can meet up next year. Yay for ProBlogger conferences 🙂
Wow, looks like a great time was had by all!
I think everyone of the 450 or so participants would echo that, Antionette 🙂
Great quotes – especially the ones from Caz and Trey. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Dana, glad you liked them. Inspiring quotes from inspiring people 🙂
Sounds like a great event… must get there next time. (Amy ideas where it is?) Thanks for the overview!
Hope you make it next year, Jo. I don’t know where it will be next year, maybe Perth?
Oh thanks for the mention and the lovely photo Jo. What a great conference!
Pleasure Nikki, and yes it was a wonderful event for so many reasons 🙂
I just caught up with this post Jo – it’s lovely! And has made me all sentimental and wishing I was back on the Gold Coast. Beautiful. Love that last pic with us at dinner! I hope we can be roomies next time too 🙂 xxxx
Thanks Amanda! I’m glad it brought back good memories for you. We did have a lovely time didn’t we, and I hope we can be roomies again too 🙂 Thanks for taking the time to pop by 🙂
What a cool event! Wish I had been in Queensland to attend. Would love to meet you and the Makepeace duo among others. I heard Amy Porterfield speak at TBEX Girona — she was very good.
Would love to meet you too Cathy! And yes, Amy Porterfield is excellent, isn’t she.
Great post, Jo! Unfortunately I couldn’t make it to the conference this year but I did buy a virtual pass after seeing the conference promoted on your blog. I’ve listed to a few of the audio downloads already – they are very inspiring and I’ve taken heaps of great things from them.
Glad to hear you had a great time and learnt a lot, too.
Oh Thank You Carolyn, so I have you to thank for some commission that bought us a couple of bottles of wine! So great that you are finding the downloads inspiring – so much information, hey!
Loved your post! I agree – I wanted to lap up everything that was said 🙂
Fantastic photos too – I really like the sugar feature! I enjoyed the cakes a lot.
Thanks for your comments, Carly! So much information wasn’t there? Glad you liked the sugar interlude – me too, ohh those petite and oh so sweet cakes!
It was great. I wonder where it will be next year?!
I wonder too, kind of hoping for Perth, but then I like the thought of Sydney better next time, to have a few days sightseeing maybe!
Looks like you had loads of fun and came back with heaps of inspiration to drive forward Jo.
We all need a bit of a injection of inspiration from time to time to keep us going.
We do need inspiration, don’t we Jill. Keeping the well full is so important 🙂
Thanks Johanna, fabulous information and a few more bloggers to check out. I have one of Darren’s e-books. One day I will get around to reading it, when I retire I think. It looks like you guys had so much fun. xxx Rae
We had so much fun, Rae and learnt so much too. I think you would also have enjoyed being there. Darren’s books are a great resource on their own though, even if you only read a page a day. Thanks for taking the time to pop by.
Your post and all the quotes you have listed are a true inspiration, that made me feel as if I was there. And it makes me dream of living in Australia for a while 🙂
Thanks, Michela. I hope one day you do, and that you can attend the event as well 🙂
Beautiful recap. I feel like I was there!
Totally wishing I could’ve gone. Next year maybe.
I made up for it by borrowing his book from the library and have learned quite a few new tricks. These quotes are very useful indeed.
I hope you can make it next year Rhonda. I’m sure you’ll love it too 🙂 Thanks for your kind comments. Darren’s books are very useful aren’t they? He publishes quite a few eBooks as well if you’re interested.